Brilliantly lit from stem to stern, she looked like a sagging birthday cake.

It's a funny thing, but today the Titanic is probably much more - that is people are much more aware of it than they were in 1954, when I was doing my research.

Events alone rarely provide much guide to the future.

I never earned a dollar that was not somehow through writing.

I look for something that is highly unusual, involving ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations.

Someone once told me the one thread that runs through them all is a premium on personal courage - not intellectual courage, but just plain physical courage.